Top 3 survey

[Sigaven]

Originally Posted by urbancore

The G is sooooooo bad!

When they "finished" it they had put the letters on the building, I was waiting for them to put the rest of the letters up. I thought surely was going to be called The Guadalupe or something. But nope, just The G. It's unfathomably off center. Not to mention the awful paint job, the tiny builder grade windows, flat facade, versetta stone, I could go on.....

[urbancore]

There are really a shit load of awful buildings. I try to ignore them...this survey has made me think about the ones I really hate...... I need to get back to positivism.

[hookem]

Originally Posted by urbancore

There are really a shit load of awful buildings. I try to ignore them...this survey has made me think about the ones I really hate...... I need to get back to positivism.

Yes, this city is full of sub par and value engineered buildings. I don't really want to think about my top 3, especially because one might be a very iconic tower that kind of embarrassed me for years. it was like, this is what a great skyscraper could look like in a real city, but because it's little Austin, we have a stubby squat version.

Luckily that has changed.

[the Genral]

Here is the final on the 3 worst plus dishonorable mentions survey per 11 participants.

#1) Capitol Towers with 55% or 6 out of 11 claiming this as the worst. In all cases, this was not only in the top 3, it was the #1 in all 6 votes.

#2) 1005 Congress Ave. 27% of the surveys listed this and Indigo / Holiday Inn, and Hilton Garden Inn / Plaza as the Silver Medal winners.

#3) each of these received 2 votes: Hobby, Hilton (next to the Convention Center)

The following got at least one vote:
Lakeside Apartments, Goodall Wooten, The G, Homeward Suites, Fairmont, 801 Barton Springs, 3rd & Shoal, LBJ Library, Lavaca Plaza, Sheratan, LaQuita on 11th, APD Headquarters, 823 Congress, Travis County Jail, Hampton Inn 2nd and San Jacinto,
Four Seasons Residence, Weston, and all the generic west campus student housing.

My take: this was a very diverse survey, ugly is indeed in the eye of the beholder. But the standout here was the Capitol Tower. 1005 Congress Ave is an insult to the grande Congress Ave. It is so sub par in design and materials, it should be the first to be imploded and replaced with something worthy of that location. Capitol Tower with its one time proposal to add a silly wing to the top is just a totally disportionate parking to office monstrosity. At least its bright and shiney. The fact that we have so many buildings listed here and many more could have been included, is a sad reality, Austin just never got the respect from designers it deserved, but at least now that is changing.
I don't feel that acknowledging the horrid buildings in our inventory is a negative, as long as we also acknowledge the ones we like as we did in the first two surveys. We just had our "what were they thinking" moment and reminder. On a positive note, I want to believe that without all the ugly buildings we have, there would be very little contrast between the good, the bad, and the ugly, and probably a whole bunch of surface parking lots and a lot less density. The argument here would be if not for the weeds, a flower could have been planted there instead. Hopefully when it comes to poorly designed and simply ugly buildings, history doesn't repeat itself. And don't forget, we have a plethora of meh buildings too. Maybe enough to warrant a top 3 survey someday.

Capitol Towers will be in the final summary, thanks to all who took the survey.

Next up:
Your top 3 favorite developed areas in and around Austin outside of the downtown area. Let's keep this to within a 25 mile radius of downtown please.

Survey question, agree or disagree:
Austin lives up to the phrase "Keep Austin Weird".


My selection:
#1 Domain
#2 South Congress
#3 Oak Hill

disagree

[urbancore]

1) East 6th/Plaza Saltillo Area
2) Domain
3) Mueller

totally agree.....Austin is still VERY weird. If you don't see, you ain't lookin.

[Echostatic]

1. Domain
2. Mueller
3. Circle C (but I'm biased)

I disagree only because I don't think Austin lives up to the phrase. I think it's still plenty weird, but given how often "Keep Austin Weird" is thrown around, it seems like it should be weirder.

[The ATX]

Domain (Lots of jobs and residences)
East Side (General area between 1st through 6th Streets several blocks east of I35)
Mueller (Just because the places that will pass it up are not done - Highland, E. Riverside)

Survey question: Disagree. The slogan always seemed contrived to me. But it is/was a successful marketing slogam.

[hookem]

I'm going to vote for this simply because I don't value the Domain much at all. I have nothing against it, but it is in no way different than any other modern development happening in any city in the US right now. It could be anywhere.

So my list is:

1) South Lamar
2) North Loop
3) South Congress

I feel that these places at least grew organically from a reflection of true local vibe and aren't filled with national chains.

As for the final question, disagree. I still love Austin, but the ship has sailed in terms of what that phrase described. Probably inevitable with the growth, which draws a lot of the standard culture of anywhere, USA to Austin. But we also exported a lot of what "Keep Austin Weird" meant, so that is a good thing.

[ClendonRoss]

East side
South Congress
Domain

[clubtokyo]

Mueller
Domain
Satillo/eastside

[eskimo33]

South Congress
North Loop
Domain

[KevinFromTexas]

Domain
South Congress
South Lamar

[East7thStreet]

1.Guadalupe Street (The Drag)/West campus
2.Domain
3.East Side (East 6th)

Disagree

[Sigaven]

1) West campus (does this count?)
2) Mueller - minus the strip malls
3) South Congress

[the Genral]

Originally Posted by Sigaven

1) West campus (does this count?)
2) Mueller - minus the strip malls
3) South Congress

West campus does count, certainly. Good choice.

[The ATX]

I edited my last response to include an answer to the question.

If we continue this thread, I think a good survey question would be: Which towers have the best night time lighting?

[Jdawgboy]

I agree that Austin is still weird, just gotta know where to look for it.

Favorite spots outside of DT

SoCo
East Central
West Campus.

Honorable mention SoLa.